Royal Chase (18 page)

He put it up on a main monitor, and we all watched. I saw Genesis, Michelle, and myself in the family room on our makeshift beds, giggling and talking. Abigail got up and went to the kitchen, and picked up the blender. She moved it from where it had been to a different location. The problem was, her back was to the camera and we couldn’t see what she was doing with her hands.

She had done that deliberately. She knew exactly where the camera was and how to avoid getting caught.

Now she was the one to look triumphant.

I gave her a look I only gave people when there was no gun handy. “Is there a different camera angle? From a different room?”

“Not for where she’s standing, no,” one of the camera guys said.

She had poisoned us, and she was going to get away with it. This registered at a 9.9 on the insane and unfair scale.

“I would never hurt anyone,” she said. There were unshed tears in her eyes, and she pressed a hand delicately to her chest, as if what I said hurt her.

“Oh, whatever,” I shot at her.

She fluttered her eyelids gently. “What did you just say? I couldn’t understand you.”

“Now we’re back to that? I said ‘whatever.’ Disdainfully and scornfully.”

That had done something. I saw the anger on her face. She came and stood right in front of me, poking me in the chest. “The next time you have an accusation, don’t go running to production. Come and say it to my face.”

“Which face? You have more than one.” The two security guys were still holding my arms so that I wouldn’t strangle her, and I briefly considered spitting at her, although that would have forever shamed my mother and grandmother, so I didn’t. I was most mad for what she’d done to Genesis and Michelle. They were so sweet and so nice; they didn’t deserve to be made sick and to suffer the way that they had. I could fight my own battles, and I hated when people picked on those who didn’t or couldn’t stick up for themselves. I didn’t take too kindly to people messing with my friends.

“Since there’s no way of proving what happened, the show will go on,” Burdette announced. I had totally forgotten he was even in the room. He looked at me. “If there is any violence or retribution done by anyone, that person will be kicked off the show and the police will be called.”

It would be worth prison to mar that perfect face of hers. It would not, however, be worth the rest of my career. I knew what he was implying. The threat that he held over my head. He nodded to the two men, knowing that when they let go of me I wouldn’t kill her.

“Now get out and go do what you’re contractually obligated to do.”

When we stepped out of the room and the door was shut behind us, I laughed at Abigail. “That completely backfired on you. He spent all day with me. It must just kill you that he likes me so much better than he will ever like you. He can’t stand you and only keeps you here because Burdette makes him.”

A look of panic crossed her face, and I realized there was something more there than even I’d figured out. A look that hadn’t happened until I mentioned Burdette. It didn’t take much to figure it out.

Two and two did indeed make four.

“You’re sleeping with him,” I said in shock. “That’s why he insists on keeping you here.”

Maybe she wasn’t as good of an actress as I thought. I could see from her expression that I had guessed right. “You daft, lying little minger,” she hissed. “Keep your false accusations to yourself!”

“Bless your heart. I’ve heard worse from better.”

She stormed off then, and it killed me that I couldn’t do anything with the information I had just uncovered. What I wouldn’t give to be able to contact an entertainment reporter to let them know that perfect family man Matthew Burdette was having an affair with a second-rate soap actress.

But there was one thing I could do.

I could tell Dante.

Chapter 18

I used to think the best thing in the world was seeing you smile, then I realized that the best thing in the world is knowing that I caused it.

I told Michelle and Genesis what had happened (leaving out the affair part). Michelle said, “Well, maybe she didn’t do it. I can’t imagine anyone being like that. It seems awfully mean.”

It sure did. Genesis and I exchanged glances, but she was still too weak to do much about it. I was glad at least one of the girls got it. An assistant came to let us know that the schedules had been shifted around, and Dante was going to England with Abigail first. Michelle looked so disappointed that I hugged her.

I had to see Dante. He had been gone for hours, and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to tell him what Abigail had done.

Scabigail had her bags packed and left for the airport. She stopped pretending to like any of us and didn’t say a word when she walked out of the house.

Fortunately, Dante still hadn’t left. He found me in my room. “Another quest done!” He handed me a sealed cardboard box.

I gave him a questioning look and opened the box. “I didn’t give you a quest . . . What? You seriously got me Graeter’s ice cream? How did you get this so fast?”

“Private jet and a spare production assistant.” He grinned.

This must have cost him a ton of money. He was doing it again. Being romantic and sweet and irresistible.

And he looked so pleased with himself that I just had to bring him down a notch. “Then technically you didn’t do it. The PA did.”

He looked so insulted that I almost laughed. “But I paid for it, so it counts.”

“I’m the quest giver, so I get to decide whether or not you get credit for it.”

“Aha! So you admit it was a quest.”

A crew member came to the door and knocked. “Your limo is waiting to take you to the airport for your visit to England.”

“Speaking of evil wenches, I have something to tell you.” I spilled out the whole story, telling him about finding the ipecac syrup in Abigail’s room, confronting her and tattling to the production team, and how absolutely nothing had happened as a result. And that she basically admitted to sleeping with Matthew Burdette before calling me a name.

“What did she say?” His eyes narrowed. I liked when Dante was angry with someone on my behalf.

“I think she called me a ‘daft, lying minger,’ but don’t quote me, because I’m not fluent in psychotic whore.”

He put a hand over mine, making my hand tingle. “Don’t worry. It will all work out in the end.”

How could he not stay angry? His calmness and rational behavior made me feel worse, which could lead to bad things. Because I was still liable to choke a witch out.

“Do you want to call Kat?” He handed me his phone, and I nearly hugged him. It was exactly what I wanted. “I’ll come get it after I finish packing.”

I dialed her number and she picked up almost immediately. “Hey, Dante! How are things going with . . .”

“Lemon?” I finished for her.

“Oh, Lemon, hi!” She sounded frazzled. “No, I was going to say ‘how are things going with the show.’ You know, just life in general.”

I decided not to give her grief. And I could hardly be upset if she and Dante were having conversations about me. I’d certainly had enough conversations with Nico about her.

We talked about her schedule, and how she and Nico were flying back in a few days to Monterra for the visits Dante would have with his family and the three remaining girls. Now I was glad that I was staying to almost the end, because I desperately missed seeing my best friend.

If you ended up with Dante, you could see her all the time
, that stupid voice in my head said. I told it to hush up.

“How are things going with you?” she asked.

“Well, let’s see. I’ve probably gained five pounds, there’s only four of us left, and Abigail tried to poison me.”

“What the actual frak?” Kat screamed into the phone. “She tried to poison you? I will hire a car and drive down there and strangle her myself! I’m pretty sure I have diplomatic immunity or something. Even if I didn’t, Nico wouldn’t ever let me go to prison. What’s your address? I need it right now.”

“You’re not going to kill her, darlin’.” I sighed. “That will lose me my job. But feel free to ignore her when she comes to the palace.”

“I’m going to do more than that,” she said, her voice angry. “I bet I could get some of the security detail to take care of her. Lorenz could make it look like an accident.”

“Kat, darlin’.” She needed to come back to reality.

“I know, I know. I’m just angry. I’m not actually homicidal. I’m just frustrated. This feels like Lady Claire all over again. What is it with us and British skanks?” Lady Claire was a noblewoman we met in Paris who had set out to break Nico and Kat apart.

Happily, it hadn’t worked.

“You know, you and Nico never thanked me for pushing you two together and helping you to defeat Lady Claire.”

“Push? You bludgeoned us together.”

That was about as good as it was going to get. “You’re welcome.”

“So how did she try to poison you?” I told her the same story I’d shared with Dante.

She let out a sound of disgust. “We should start building an ark because it is seriously time for a flood. What is wrong with people?”

“Either she really wants Dante for herself, or it’s about the fame.” I couldn’t blame her if she did want Dante. Even if she was literally one of the worst people I had ever met.

“And what about you?” Now she sounded tentative. I’d always had the motherly role in our friendship, and I knew Kat wanted to help me, only she wasn’t sure how to go about it. “Other than the attempt on your life, how are things going? Like with the wedding?”

I lay down in my bed, looking up at the ceiling. “The wedding’s on track. Momma’s taken care of everything. It’s just . . . I’m not sure there’s going to be a wedding.”

She didn’t respond.

“Did you hear what I said?”

“I did. I’m just trying to figure out what to say so that you won’t get mad or stop telling me stuff.”

“I know what you think. I’m just . . . I might be agreeing with you. Although, maybe it’s because of the situation. It’s hard not to imagine yourself falling in love when you’re in a place like this. Where everything is romantic and amazing and exotic. It’s not real life.”

“You’re right,” she said thoughtfully. “It’s not real life. But you knew Dante in real life before this. It’s not like he’s changed who he is. And that’s the part that matters, right?”

I closed my eyes against my oncoming headache. “Sometimes I think part of the reason why I said yes to Sterling was because if he cheated on me, I would get over it. If Dante did, I don’t know if I’d recover. It kills me to be here and see him flirting with and falling for other women. I’m in this constant state of jealousy and wanting to maim people.”

She paused again. “I think that says something important, don’t you?”

I did. And I had spent all these weeks fighting against it, trying to stay on course and keep going down the path I had already chosen. I tried to hide my feelings under teasing or insults, but the truth was that I had fallen for Dante. I might already be in love with him. I couldn’t even be sure because I didn’t have anything else to compare it to. I had never felt this way about any other man.

Not even my fiancé.

And now there was a fork in the road and whichever branch I took was going to change my entire life.

“Sterling at least says he loves me. He wants to marry me. All Dante’s ever done is flirt with me. I don’t know if he even has feelings for me.”

Another pause. “I think he has feelings for you. I think he’s in love with you.”

“You think or you know?” My heart leapt in anticipation, ready to burst.

“If you’re trying to find out whether he’s told me anything, he hasn’t. I’m just basing it on what I’ve seen.” The deflated, sinking feeling inside me had to mean something.

But was that enough? Was it worth taking a risk if I didn’t even know whether Dante was capable of loving and being faithful to one woman?

I was taking him home to meet my parents, and I was going to go and see his family. Maybe I should take that time seriously. Treat it like it was real, and like we weren’t pretending.

And maybe I should let Dante say whatever I’d been trying to keep him from saying all along. He might be in love with me, but it could have been just about the physical for him. I probably should find out.

I needed to know one way or the other, but was that fair to Sterling? Should I call him and tell him? What would I say? I couldn’t even articulate to myself everything that I was feeling. How could I explain things to him? Was it fair to let things go ahead like normal without giving him a heads-up?

It might be a huge mistake to call him. What if when I saw him again, all of this Dante stuff melted away? What if I called off the wedding and it ended up being the worst thing I’d ever done? I might really regret it.

I also might regret walking away from Dante.

Still such a mess. “What am I going to do?”

“You’re going to have to decide that. Much as I would love to take over your life and make all your decisions for you, that’s not realistic. It has to be your choice. I do think that Dante will make you happier than Sterling ever will.”

“Should I call Sterling?”

“I don’t think you should do anything until you’ve made a decision. Don’t talk to Dante about it, and don’t talk to Sterling about it. Stay the course, keep your career intact, and figure it out when you leave the show. You do what makes you happy. I mean seriously, when did we decide to start letting boys be responsible for our happiness?”

“I was thirteen.”

She laughed and said, “I was twenty-four.” Which made us both laugh, and I did feel better. I told her I’d see her soon, and we hung up.

Dante walked into the room, as if he’d been waiting just outside the door for the right moment to enter. I wondered if he’d been eavesdropping. My heartbeat started a low, worried thud in my chest. I began to say something to him, but he kissed me on the cheek, took the phone, and said, “See you in a few days.”

I could only pray that he hadn’t heard what I’d said about him and about Sterling, because he could use it to his advantage, to keep sucking me in and making me fall for him before he walked away and left me alone.

If he knew, there’d be no way to tell if what was happening between us was real.

Genesis and I were making dinner. Michelle had left and Abigail had returned. Dante hadn’t come home, which made me think he was just going to travel from one location to the next. Michelle was from New York, and then he’d go to Iowa with Genesis and Georgia with me. Genesis had already packed her bags, and we talked about how worried she was for her aunt to meet him. “We’re not what you would call normal,” she said.

“Nobody ever is,” I reassured her.

That seemed to make her feel better. We again discussed how we imagined Abigail’s family trip had gone, because we hadn’t seen her come out of her room since she’d been back.

“Do you think it was a lot of tallyhos and pish poshes and hunting foxes?” Genesis asked.

“It depends on whether or not she comes from money. There were probably a lot of tea and crumpets involved, though.” Neither one of us had any idea about regular English family life. We hadn’t been to England and didn’t really know anything about the country other than what we’d seen on TV. Which wasn’t really fair, because if somebody judged Americans by our television shows, well, then nobody would ever visit our country again.

I did have one friend who was English, but she was a princess and there was no way to explain that.

“Do you think it’s weird to have feelings for someone you don’t even really know?” Genesis blurted out, not looking at me.

“What do you mean?” I ignored my jittery pulse, afraid of what she might say.

“I feel like there’s things I should know about him but don’t because we hardly get to spend any time alone together and he’s always asking about me. Like, how many brothers and sisters he has. His favorite kind of car. His favorite movie or his favorite song. I don’t even know what his major was in college.”